Babes in Borneo

Firstly, I suppose I should clear up some facts that alluded me until I actually started reading more about Malaysian Borneo... About 3 days before we boarded the flight from Bangkok to Kota Kinabalu. The island of Borneo is actually made up of four autonomous/semi-autonomous regions. The lower half belongs to Indonesia, the N Easternmost section is called Sabah (capital is Kota Kinabalu) and is part of Malaysia. The N Westernmost part is another Malaysian province called Sarawak (capital Kuching). Sandwiched neatly between Sabah and Sarawak is the tiny Kingdom of Brunei- a Muslim state still governed by a Sultan, where being gay is actually illegal.

As we had only a month in the area we decided that Sabah was our #1 priority as it seemed to have the most varied and exciting stuff to do. Arriving in KK was exciting for me as I perceived Borneo as being very exotic. Not really so, but the stark differences between Malaysia and its loose cousin Thailand was immediately evident. The friendly woman who checked my passport at immigration was Muslim and her head covering (tudung) was actually built into her standard issue immigration-lady garb. Although Malaysia is not technically a Muslim state a high percentage of the population practice Islam and the different traditional outfits were on display all over the country. I thought this was pretty neat.

KK is a nice city by the sea... There are even some tropical islands right off the coast with some pretty decent diving. While diving here Amy had yet another strange animal experience, she got bitten by a VERY small fish who was protecting his coral house. Although the fish was small, he took a pretty big bite and she was very proud of it. Incidentally, one island (Pulau Tiga) was the location of the first season of Survivor. Sadly, it was a bit far out for us to visit so I had to be content with my memories of Richard Hatch in a bathing suit.

Time spent in KK was spent planning, as most things in Sabah have to be done on some sort of organized tour or another... there's a lot of bureaucratic red tape, national park fees, permits etc. All this has to be organized before you go, making individual travel, of the style we've become accustomed to, virtually impossible.

First on the list was a climb to the top of Borneo's highest mountain- Mt. Kinabalu(4095m)! After my experience climbing Mt. Fuji you could say that I wasn't exactly enthused about dragging my ass to the top of yet another 'must see mountain'. My nervousness at not being able to hack it actually worked to my advantage. My former cockiness was replaced with the firm belief that the Japanese octogenarians we met at the base of the mountain would certainly pass me on the way to the summit. Becoming one with this idea allowed me to climb in peace. That said, the slow and steady pace Amy and I set from the get-go allowed us to ascend with minimal drama. I'm happy to say that we actually ended up being one of the first groups to reach the summit at 5:00am the next day... All wasn't lost for the 20-somethings.

The climb itself was absolutely fantastic! The trail wound around the mountain through dense jungle the likes of which I've never seen, through alpine forests and finally meadows as we got closer to 3000m. We spent the night in a very basic but comfortable hostel at 3000m before getting up and leaving for the summit at 3:00am. I thought the two hour push to the top was actually less arduous and demoralizing than the previous days climb. It was pitch black so we couldn't see how far we had to go, or how steep it actually was. At parts we had to use ropes to haul our exhausted bodies up sections of rock too steep to walk up. At the end, we waited a FREEZING 45mins for the sun to come up over the mountains... I wasn't disappointed! The sense of accomplishment and the breathtaking beauty of the sunrise made for an intoxicating combination that made me (almost) forget the pain of the previous day and what was to come on the 6 hr climb down. Down was the worst, that's all I'm going to say... I was SO sore for the next few days.

After the climb we headed back to KK for a rest and then out to the small town of Sepilok. I'm not really sure if I should even call Sepilok a town... it's basically a bunch of guesthouses near the famous Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center. Here they allow visitors to watch twice daily feeding sessions from the comfort of a wooden boardwalk. We went to see one and it felt more like a zoo than anything else but you can't really deny the appeal of Orangutans. The group of 7 beasts swung across a rope bridge to the feeding platform (some even posed for pictures on the way!). There was one gorgeous baby who captured everyone's heart... As he swung in front of the crowd, his spindly little legs dangling in the breeze and a look of utter concentration on his face, the chorus of "awwwwww" could probably be heard from miles around.

From Sepilok we headed into the jungle for a 2 night/3 day stay along the Kinabatangan river (apparently the longest in Borneo). Other than it's length, the appeal of the Kinabatangan is the pockets of conserved land along its banks that are home to many different kinds of creatures. The pockets are really small... obviously bad for the animals, but good for tourists as the animals have nowhere else to go. On the first night I managed to get bogged down with a cold and spent the next 3 days sweating out a fever and appreciating the majesty of nature from inside our hut. As crappy as I felt, I still managed to participate in the most exciting parts of the trip; a night boat ride on which we saw 3m long crocodiles, the famous proboscis monkeys, owls and kingfishers, and a special boat ride to see a herd of Pygmy elephants who were hanging out by the river! This was a really special thing, as the elephants are not commonly sighted. As soon as the guides heard about the herd (haha) we piled into boats and headed up-river. It was an amazing sight to see 50-70 elephants in the wild, lounging and eating by the riverbank. We sat quietly in the boats and watched them before moving a bit further away so they could come down to the river to wash... it was quite a sight to behold! After about an hour of elephant watching it started to rain and get dark (probably not the best thing for my fever) and we headed back to camp.

On the way back, our ever-attentive guide was so engrossed in trying to spot more wildlife on the banks of the river that he neglected to spot a massive log floating in the water... We hit the log head-on, it went through the hull of the boat and we started to sink! As we were slinking our way to the shore in the damaged boat I think all of our thoughts were on those massive crocodiles we'd seen the night before. Thankfully, all wasn't lost, another boat made a quick trip back to the camp to dump passengers and then came back to retrieve the 8 shivering, wet people from the riverbank. At one point during our wait our guide, apparently trying to get back into our good-books, happily announced "croc sighting!". After receiving 8 caustic looks he qualified himself by adding "...other side". We all breathed a sigh of relief that the offending animal was at least 10m away.

Our planned next stop was diving in Sipidan but because we were then both sick, we postponed the dive trip and hopped on a flight to Peninsular Malaysia.